


Take the Lead

by Kawaiicoyote



Series: It's Better This Way [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: And titles, Angst, But Derek is trying to get a grasp at things, Derek is a chaperon, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Sorry, Isaac and Cora are cute, Lydia is just really sweet in this one trust me, M/M, Oblivious Derek, One-Sided Relationship, School Dances, Sweet Derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 11:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/861619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kawaiicoyote/pseuds/Kawaiicoyote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Be my date to the dance,” Jennifer says in a rush on an exhale of breath. Derek actually takes a step back from her, eyebrows raised.<br/>“Excuse me?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take the Lead

**Author's Note:**

> So okay gather round children of mine, I have news to tell you.  
> First of all the standard stuff, this is unbeta'd. I apologize for that, it's been given another rough go through. Mistakes that were previously stated will be eventually taken care of.
> 
> Secondly, I MAY be able to post more frequently since I have found a way make my phone into a mobile hot spot. I can't make any promises but HOPEFULLY you'll be seeing even more of me. If you're not already sick of me at this point that is.
> 
> BIG CHANGE: I've changed Denise into Jennifer since that is her canon name. As much as I freaking HATE changing her name to be canon compliant I did it for you guys as not to lessen any confusion there may be. So as of starting right now, her name is Jennifer.
> 
> There's a little more Sterek in this one, so hopefully you guys like it.  
> And thanks so much for your continuing support, I seriously love you guys. 
> 
> woooo okay I'm done with all the babbling, now go read!... please?

It catches him off guard when Jennifer appears at the loft after school. He’s alone and for some reason the look of jittery her face isn’t enough to set him on edge.

“What’s wrong?” Derek asks, opening the door wider to allow her in further into the loft. She gives him a half smile and hesitates but comes in.

A few moments of tense silence follow and it’s enough to have Derek sweating.

She takes a breath and holds her arms out like she doesn’t even know where to begin. He waits as patiently as he can.

“Be my date to the dance,” Jennifer says in a rush on an exhale of breath. Derek actually takes a step back from her, eyebrows raised.

“Excuse me?”

She gives him an apologetic look and crosses her arms loosely over her chest. “There’s a school dance coming up and since I’m fresh meat here I’m required to chaperone.”

“And,” Derek prompts her when she doesn’t elaborate anymore.

Jennifer gives him a fleeting glance before resolutely staring at her shoes. “It’d be nice not to be alone.”

He rubs a hand over his face and tries to figure out what to say to that. “Are you sure that’d be a good idea? I’m still not exactly what you would call an upstanding member of the community.”

Jennifer laughs at that and he grins at her.

“It’d just be nice to have you,” she pauses and then looks at him through her lashes. “I’d feel safer if you were there.”

Derek tries to keep his face as neutral as possible. Tries to keep the fleeting thought from his mind that she only wants him there as a bodyguard. She wants him there with her and she feels safer with him around. He knows he should take it as a complement but it still doesn’t sit right with him. If anything it just makes him feel even more uneasy about the whole situation.

“Derek?” Jennifer’s voice brings him out of his thoughts. She looks worried, the sharp scent of anxiety beginning to surround her.

He musters up his grumpiest face and mirrors her posture, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. “If this is a formal event then I might have trouble being let in.”

Immediately Jennifer brightens and skips over to him and lays a hand against his chest with a sly smile. “It’s more like business casual, but if need be I’ll rebel and sneak you in, “she pauses and stands on her tip toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Besides, nobody puts baby in the corner.”

Derek rolls his eyes, fighting with everything in him to not smile but fails miserably.

On her way out the door Jennifer looks at him over her shoulder and grins. “Friday, 7 sharp. I expect you not to be late Mr. Hale.”

Derek cocks an eyebrow at her, “But Ms. Blake, I thought the in thing was to be fashionably late.”

She tilts her head back and laughs as she closes the door behind her.

When she’s gone he sighs and runs his hands through his hair and wonders how the hell he’ll pull off being at a dance for teenagers.

He turns and finds Cora peeking around the corner of the wall. She steps out when she knows she’s been caught and Derek looks at her expectantly.

“So,” Cora begins awkwardly and Derek holds up a hand to stop her from speaking any further.

“If Isaac already asked you, you can go.”

Cora looks taken aback before she schools her features, trying to look cool about the situation. She scoffs to cover up the nervousness about her.

“I wasn’t asking permission, I was going to ask if you’d take me to get an outfit for the dance.”

Derek doesn’t say anything, just stares at her, clearly floored. Cora deflates a little and crosses quickly to him and, for the first time since he’s had her back, hugs him tight around the middle.

“Thank you, for letting me go though,” she mutters and he hugs her back. “It’ll make me feel better knowing you’re there too.”

He kisses the top of her head and lets her go when she pulls away and thinks that maybe it’ll be a good thing after all for the both of them to get out and socialize a little.

00oo0oo00

Derek was wrong. He was so fucking wrong.

In the gymnasium, which is decorated like the glitter fairy threw up and then added strobe lights, he’s left standing awkwardly in the shadows.

Jennifer has been pulled away for some reason or another, the pack is scattered about, he can’t see Cora or Isaac in the crowd, and the other chaperones keep side eyeing him without being discreet at all.

What he really wants to do is bail. Bail and go home and maybe work out to release the tension he has and then maybe watch some mindless television. He’s debating whether or not to shoot Jennifer a text and flee from the obnoxiously loud hormonal filled space when someone slides up next to him and holds out a pink solo cup.

“Someone needs to turn their frown upside down,” Stiles says with the smarmiest of smiles and Derek glowers at him, though he knows that his glares haven’t worked on him in months, and takes the offered drink of unknown origins. It’s warm and tastes like generic brand cough syrup but he gulps half of it down in one go.

“Why aren’t you out there?” Derek asks, staring out at the mass of teenagers who are mostly trying to pass dry humping off as dancing.

Beside him Stiles snorts and leans against the wall and shrugs. “Me? I’m biding my time, scoping everyone out before making my move.”

“Couldn’t get a date?” He asks without thinking and raises the cup to his mouth again. It doesn’t taste any better but dammit he’s thirsty. Stiles goes absolutely rigid beside him and his brows furrow for a moment. Derek opens his mouth to backtrack and apologize, because really that was just a dick thing of him to say, when Stiles waves him off with a wide smile that Derek knows is all front and empty.

“I don’t need a date,” Stiles explains, already pushing himself off of the wall, face schooled into looking like everything is fine. Derek feels like the scum of the Earth. “I went stag to this shindig Alpha-o-mine. Some of us don’t need dates and want to leave ourselves open for possibilities.”

Derek grunts in frustration. “Stiles, look I didn’t mean_”

Stiles cuts him off when he lays his hand against his wrist, just really enough for his fingertips to press under the cuff of his button up shirt that he’s found buried in the back of his closet, and shakes his head.

“Dude it’s okay, I’m not some damsel that’s gonna fall apart because the girl or guy didn’t ask me out to a stupid high school dance.”

Derek wants to argue and say he _knows_ he’s not some damsel, knows he doesn’t need a date, wants to say that doesn’t make it any less lonely, wants to say it’s okay to want to be with someone. Instead he settles for aiming a halfhearted glare at him and risks letting his eyes flash red for a moment.

“Don’t call me dude.”

Stiles laughs then, a real genuine laugh that has Derek grinning at him. Relative silence falls between them and Derek finds it weird just how quiet Stiles is being. He doesn’t realize Stiles is still touching his wrist until he lets his hand drop away.

Derek turns to look at him better, and Stiles looks like he’s going to say or ask something. But the moment passes and Derek can see the moment that Stiles deflates and gives up on whatever he had on his mind.

“When Jennifer gets back you should ask her to dance,” Stiles says with a smile that doesn’t look as genuine anymore. “She looks like the type that wants you to dance with her but won’t say anything. You should really ask her.”

There’s such an intensity, and surprisingly, sadness in Stiles eyes as he backs away from Derek and into the crowd. It leaves him wondering if he missed something. Something big.

“I am so sorry,” Jennifer’s voice beside him in the next minute startles him. “They wanted me to help with a student who got glitter in her eyes and then I had to help pour more punch which oh god I’m so sorry you were subjected to that stuff, I tried to get back sooner I really__”

Derek cuts her off by sliding his hand into hers and nodding towards what is considered the dance floor. Jennifer looks surprised, like a dear caught in the headlights, but nods enthusiastically.

He grins and leads her out onto the floor. The students part for them, casting curious glance their way but don’t say anything directly to them. When they’re in the center Derek turns to Jennifer and holds her hand, drawing her close to him when the erratic noise they’re passing as music switches to a slower song. The soothing male vocals and the slow violin make it sound almost mournful, but it’s much better than the music they were playing before.

With Jennifer’s cheek resting on his chest and his hand on her waist they sway in time to the music. It’s easy enough for even him to catch onto. Around them he catches brief glimpses of the pack. Scott and Allison making moon eyes at each other, Isaac and Cora dancing close and so stiffly it makes him smile, Lydia and Boyd dancing with their foreheads pressed together. Boyd has his eyes closes tightly and Lydia looks like she’s whispering something to him. He frowns at that display and makes note to find out exactly was wrong with his beta later on when they’re not at the dance.

After a minute, Derek realizes that he hasn’t seen Stiles dancing with anyone. His eyes sweep the crowd, moving as not to alert Jennifer. It puts him a little on edge when he can’t find him.

And then he sees him. Stiles is talking to Danny near the double doors to the gymnasium, bumping fists with him and nodding. It takes him a minute to realize that Stiles is leaving the dance.

As if sensing Derek’s gaze on him Stiles looks directly at him. They stare each other down what feels like hours instead of seconds before Stiles raises his fist and gives him a thumbs up and a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes at all, and then exits the double doors behind him.

It leaves Derek feeling that he’s definitely missed something. A something that feels very important and leaves his chest feeling tight.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo thoughts and comments my loves?  
> Also as of right now I have the next part almost completely finished. As it stands it's almost at 7k. By far my longest singular fic that isn't a chapter fic. 
> 
> I'll most likely be posting that tonight or tomorrow depending when I actually get it finished. Hope you don't mind all the angst and heartache it will hold... oops.


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